A day in Dungeness

Three weeks ago, I took a trip to the strange but serene location of Dungeness, Kent, with a few friends. Utterly spoilt by our sightings, a great day was had by all.

One of the shrikes in
question!

We visited the RSPB's Dungeness reserve, and within minutes of turning into the dirt track which leads up to its visitor centre, we received the exciting news that some red backed shrikes had been spotted in the area. We pulled over and jumped straight out of the car; cameras, binoculars and scopes at the ready. It didn't take much searching: there, perched in a bramble bush directly ahead of us, was a pair of them!

We spent a large part of our morning in the Hanson ARC hide, waiting patiently for a lucky glimpse of a recently reported glossy ibis. On this attempt we had no luck but, after our inspiring shrike encounter, we remained hopeful. It seemed that that hope counted for something, as whilst we were sat enjoying a spot of lunch, an ibis flew right over our heads!

View of a visiting glossy ibis, courtesy of RSPB
Dungeness' Hanson ARC Hide

We saw an impressive array of species as we made our way around the reserve. Some other great spots included a great white egret, spotted flycatcher, wheatear, whitethroat, black-tailed godwit and common sandpiper, to name just a few! Before we left, we popped back into the hide we'd visited earlier... This time it had a lot more to offer us: we were treated to yet another amazing view of a glossy ibis, which was busy pruning itself out on the mudflats. With four of us keeping our eyes pealed, by the end of the day we'd managed to rack up a list of over 100 bird species!

This impressive total wasn’t just courtesy of RSPB Dungeness - it was also aided by a trip to the beach, where we got decent views of gannet, arctic skua and black tern. We even caught sight of a group of porpoise cruising through the water, their dorsal fins just visible breaching the surface every now and again.

Henry, Jason and Nicole scan the horizon in search of rare seabirds...

I expect that we’ll be off on another birding trip sometime in the near future...